Old Friends
by monkeymouse
Summary: "Can you imagine us years from today, sharing a park bench quietly..." A very sad reunion. Mild Cho/Ginny slash


OLD FRIENDS  
  
By monkeymouse  
  
Rated PG-13 for mild f/f  
  
A/N: This fic takes place in the same Potterverse as "While Strolling Through the Park One Day" (posted on fanfiction.net).  
  
xxx  
  
Cho Chang marveled at how easily Rose Weasley could fall asleep. The days were getting longer; it was almost the Summer Solstice. Rose, however, could drop off with little or no prodding or coaxing.  
  
Cho helped matters along, of course. She had brought her wand to the baby's room, and created images in multicolored smoke over the crib, slowly changing them, like drifting clouds, until Rose fell asleep. She kept the images floating a little while after that to amuse herself. She was also amused by the circumstances—unmarried at twenty-five and unlikely to get married anytime soon, she never expected to play mother to an infant. Least of all to this infant…  
  
She heard steps on the stairs. That would be Ginny Weasley, Rose's mother and Cho's lover. But there was something—odd. The steps sounded lifeless, as if everything had been drained out of the walker. This made Cho nervous; she moved to the door and opened it just as Ginny was reaching for the knob.  
  
Ginny looked awful. Not the kind of awful she used to look in her recently- ended days of drunkenness and debauchery. This was an awfulness born of seeing something too ghastly to forget and yet so terrible that one tries to forget it.  
  
"Ginny! You look like you've seen a Grim!"  
  
"Worse," Ginny said as she crossed the room and sat heavily in the rocking- chair near the window. "I saw him."  
  
Neither moved or spoke for half a minute. Then Cho said only, "Where?"  
  
"I don't want to say."  
  
"Where is he, Ginny?"  
  
"Please, you mustn't go to see him…"  
  
"WHERE IS HE?"  
  
"In … in Hyde Park. Near the place where we met in April."  
  
Cho started to leave the room.  
  
"Wait! Don't do this!"  
  
"I have to do this!"  
  
"You don't know what you're in for!"  
  
"What are you afraid of, Ginny? Afraid I won't come back? Afraid he'll see me and start declaring his love for me all over Hyde Park?"  
  
Ginny bit her lip and answered softly. "It would be a relief if he did."  
  
Cho turned and started down the stairs. Ginny's voice followed: "Fine, but don't blame me for what happens!"  
  
xxx  
  
She went to Hyde Park, to the spot where she'd met Ginny and her baby just two months before. The sky was overcast but the temperature was mild and the park was crowded. She scanned the people passing her on the path. Her Seeker instincts kicked back in after years of idleness. Quickly she looked from face to face, hoping to find some sign of recognition, yet also dreading what she might find.  
  
A slight movement caught the corner of her eye; someone on a park bench. When she turned, she saw what appeared to be a middle-aged man, head bowed so that she saw only his disordered salt-and-pepper hair…  
  
"Harry?" she asked tentatively.  
  
Slowly the man on the bench raised his head to look at her. The lightning- bolt scar was gone, somehow. The glasses were now wire-frames instead of thick black plastic, but nothing could cover up the green eyes behind them…  
  
"Harry! It's been ages!" She rushed to sit beside him. "I've meant to look you up, but everywhere I asked, they said they couldn't find you…"  
  
Her voice trailed off as Harry Potter raised his sad green eyes to Cho's. "Excuse me," he asked in a thin, lifeless voice, "but, who are you?"  
  
xxx  
  
It was an open secret in Ravenclaw House, when they were students at Hogwarts, that Harry had a hopeless, absolute crush on Cho Chang. Less well-known was that Cho had a preference for her own gender. She was friendly toward Harry–one Seeker to another–and even respectful of his abilities at Quidditch. But she wasn't about to start dating him. She simply didn't feel that way about him.  
  
Cedric Diggory complicated the issue, yet also made it easier. The handsome Seventh-Year Hufflepuff Seeker invited Cho to the Yule Ball, and she thought she could parley being seen on his arm into a chance to lay suspicions about herself to rest. Then came the Second Task, where he had to rescue Cho from the merpeople in the lake. Everything that day worked on Cho's heart and mind, convincing her that maybe, just maybe, she could find it in herself to fall in love with Cedric. That state lasted only until the Third Task, which killed Cedric.  
  
It almost killed Cho as well. Like a stage magician who forgets for a moment that he's offering illusions, Cho had lived the lie of Cedric as her boyfriend, and for most of the rest of her time at Hogwarts suffered for it. She moved distraught through a castle whose every brick reminded her of him. She abandoned Quidditch and nearly abandoned everything else.  
  
The only relief she knew in those years was the first six months of her last year. She became the target of Ginny Weasley, by then the school's most infamous Fifth-Year. Even at her relatively early age, she had cut a wide swath through the males of Hogwarts, faculty as well as students. So she set her eyes on her first female lover, who happened to be Cho Chang.  
  
It really was as impersonal as all that for Ginny at first. She and Cho knew each other by reputation only. Cho was Ginny's experiment, a way to satisfy her curiosity. Only, something happened in that first brief encounter. Everything that Cho had felt about Cedric, with Cedric, everything that had fallen to pieces when he was killed, came together again when Ginny stroked her cheek, when Ginny kissed that spot behind Cho's right ear. Cho was Sorted into Ravenclaw, and understood herself on an intellectual level, but when Ginny came along she finally knew, with absolute clarity, where she would be living her love life and why…  
  
xxx  
  
Cho's heart turned to lead in her chest. "Don't you know me? Don't you remember?"  
  
Harry gave a small shrug. "Sorry."  
  
"I'm Cho. Cho Chang. From Hogwarts. We were both Seekers there."  
  
Harry couldn't even find the energy to be upset by this, but Cho was losing her grip on her emotions. "You have to remember, Harry! You were one of the best Quidditch players I ever saw!"  
  
Harry's green eyes went out of focus for a second. "Quidditch? Isn't that the … they play it on brooms?"  
  
"Yes," Cho sighed in relief.  
  
"And the little one … with the wings…"  
  
"The Golden Snitch."  
  
"The Golden Snitch," Harry repeated, as if studying a foreign language. "I've been seeing it lately. Just before I fall asleep. It seems to be above me, as if it's asking me to follow. I want to reach out, touch it, but I'm so tired…" Harry paused for a minute, staring at the path. "Quidditch?" Cho nodded. "Tell me, have I ever been to a Quidditch match?"  
  
That was when Cho lost control. She couldn't stop the tears now, and wouldn't even if she could. The Boy Who Lived, the Seeker for Gryffindor who found his place in the wizarding world on the Quidditch pitch–had no idea what he had done, or how special it was…  
  
"There you are! You've been a naughty boy, Harry."  
  
These words were spoken by a young man dressed in white and pushing an empty wheelchair. "Do we have to go now?" Harry asked plaintively. "I think I was remembering … something."  
  
"That's right, Harry, another step every day …" The man in white stopped when he saw Cho hastily wiping away her tears. "Cho Chang, isn't it?"  
  
"Yes. Were you at Hogwarts too?"  
  
He nodded. "Colin Creevey. I was in Gryffindor with Harry here. Now I help look after him. Shame to see it, really; he's just our age, but it's a five year old's mind in a fifty year old's body."  
  
Cho's hand involuntarily grasped Harry's; Harry didn't react at all. "Must you talk about him as if he isn't here?"  
  
"Well, he's not all here, is he? Did he know you just now?" Cho shook her head. "Well, there it is. He's getting better, though; even getting back a bit of magic. Didn't like the tapioca with dinner last night; next thing we know, the stuff's all over the wall."  
  
"Sorry."  
  
"No need for apologies, Harry. It means you're getting better. We all work for moments like that, eh?"  
  
"Excuse me," Cho interrupted, "but who are 'we'? Where has he been all this time? Nobody seems to have seen him since the fall of the Dark Lord."  
  
"The Special Wing, at Saint Bart's Hospital. There's a ward only for wizards who are very bad off. They usually need Muggle medicine as well as magic to heal them. Harry's been working them all around the clock to try to bring him back up to scratch."  
  
"But–what happened?"  
  
Colin took Cho's elbow and led her a few steps away, so that Harry couldn't hear. "A Dementor's Kiss." Cho's hand flew in front of her mouth. "Damnedest thing anyone ever saw. I was there, you know, at Little Hangleton. Harry was out in front, and Voldemort definitely had the upper hand. A bunch of Dementors moves up on us, but Harry pulls out his wand and releases a fantastic-looking Patronus; like a great silver stag. It fights off three Dementors–but not the one that had snuck up behind Harry.  
  
"Well, when we saw the Kiss, most of us figured it was all over for Harry. But, instead of crumbling to the ground, Harry steps back, points his wand and turns the Dementor to ashes. Well, that turned everything right around. I mean, here was Harry Potter, after a Dementor's Kiss, still on his feet! He was looking a bit dizzy, but there he was. We all rallied 'round him, and that turned the tide. Did you see his forehead?"  
  
"Yes; the scar's gone."  
  
"Doctors figure it happened in that last battle. He was being protected by his mother, you see, when Voldemort attacked them the first time. He survived the Dementor's Kiss because of that last little bit of his mother's protection. Now we've got to rebuild what's left."  
  
Cho touched Colin's arm. "Thank you for doing all this."  
  
"Don't thank me; thank the National Health. They pay for some of it; the Survivors Fund and the Ministry also pay in a bit. Plus, I get a little extra from Harry's godfather."  
  
"Godfather?"  
  
"I guess you don't know. When Harry was born, his parents' best friend stood up as Harry's godfather. Believe it or not, it was Sirius Black. Don't worry!" Colin added hastily, seeing the look on Cho's face. "Seems all those years he wasn't really a vicious murderer. One of Voldemort's people put the blame on him. That all got sorted out after Voldemort was destroyed."  
  
Colin looked over his shoulder at Harry, who hadn't moved from the park bench. "So Harry got his godfather back; his last bit of family in the world, I believe. And he pays out of Harry's vault in Gringotts; they say it's got so much gold in it that it'd make men drool like hungry wolves. And Harry doesn't even know it's there. Life is funny, innit?"  
  
Colin walked back and helped Harry transfer into the wheelchair. "Time to get back now, Harry."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Torture and bubbles." To Cho: "Physical therapy and a Jacuzzi bath."  
  
Cho crouched down until her eyes were level with Harry's. She took his hand in her own. "It was … good to see you, Harry. Now that I know where to find you, I'm sure I'll come see you again. Take care of yourself."  
  
Cho stood up, but Harry held onto her hand. "You're … very pretty; did I ever tell you that?"  
  
"Yes, I'm sure you did."  
  
With that, he let go of Cho's hand. Colin nodded to Cho, and pushed Harry's wheelchair down the path.  
  
Cho stood rooted to the spot, watching until they were lost in the crowd. Then, tears pouring from her eyes, she turned and ran. She ran to the Leaky Cauldron, ran into Diagon Alley, ran to her family's shop, ran up the stairs two at a time to Rose's room.  
  
Rose was asleep in her crib; Ginny wasn't there.  
  
Cho stood in the doorway and shouted downstairs: "GINNY!!"  
  
A second later, Ginny dashed out of the kitchen. "What's wrong?!"  
  
"Where were you?"  
  
"In the kitchen fixing Rose's bottle. Cho, what happened?" She had climbed the stairs and was now sitting on the floor next to Cho, who had slumped down in the doorway.  
  
Cho, who was still shaken by what had happened, threw her arms around Ginny. "Ginny, love, I have something terrible to ask you."  
  
"What?"  
  
"First, I want to make love to you; right here, right now."  
  
"You're right," Ginny smiled, "that sounds just awful."  
  
"No; listen to me. I want you … to keep a diary."  
  
The smile vanished at once. "How dare you!"  
  
"Listen, Ginny, listen! I remember what happened to you with Tom Riddle's diary; I remember all that. And ordinarily I wouldn't ask it, but … Ginny, I saw him just now. I saw Harry, and he … he didn't know me. He didn't know what Quidditch was, and he didn't know who I was."  
  
"God, Cho…"  
  
"It's not about me, but … what kind of a world is it … where you can love something the way Harry did, and now it's just … gone …"  
  
Cho rested her head on Ginny's shoulder and let the tears come, Ginny holding her all the while. After a few minutes, she pulled herself together and went on: "I'm sure I'll never forget you, and I don't want you to forget me…"  
  
"No chance of that…"  
  
"But it can happen! And if it happens, I want it down in writing; everything that happens to us. Every kiss, every haircut, every shopping trip to Harrod's, Rose's first steps–everything."  
  
Ginny was still for a minute. Finally she looked into Cho's eyes. "I still can't do it; not on my own."  
  
Cho nodded.  
  
"Will you help me, Cho? Can we write our diary together?"  
  
"Of course," Cho smiled.  
  
Ginny smiled too, as she kissed that place behind Cho's right ear. "In that case," she whispered, "let's put something really interesting on page one."  
  
Ginny helped Cho to her feet. Together they walked into their bedroom and closed the door. 


End file.
